Ship-/surface-launched Hs 293 ?

[ChernayaAkula]

How about a ship- or surface-launched Hs 293? Had this idea last night of a Hs 293 with boosters to get it off the ground and up to cruising speed. Maybe the wings would need to be lengthened to give it better cruising performance (and to keep it from falling in the water ). Carried in canisters (like the SS-N-2 or similar) on fast-attack craft (Schnellboote), bigger warships (think Bismarck-class with Slava-class-like launch tubes  ), maybe even U-boats. Or mount them on trucks, half-tracks or such for coastal defence or destruction of pin-point targets like bridges.

Does that make any sense?

[jcf]

How would you guide it?
The Hs 293 series were visually guided by an operator on the carrier aircraft.

[ChernayaAkula]

I figured they'd go the same way, radio guidance and flares for visually acquiring the missile after launch. Although that wouldn't give it that much stand-off distance on land (line of sight). 
Maybe a fast-attack craft wouldn't be stable enough to mount the sighting equipment. Would be less problematic on battleships (or other large ships) and for surface-launched missiles.
And for a ship-to-ship weapon, the range would have to be drastically improved. Big boosters to get it to altitude. 


Okay, maybe not a too good idea.  Unless they'd worked out the TV-guidance. Or maybe semi-active radar homing?

[jcf]

Perhaps surface launch with a control aircraft?

There would be some coordination required. 

One of the main mods would be to find a way to overcome jamming by the targets,
once the Allies knew what was up with the various missiles they quickly introduced
effective counter-measures.
Fritz X was the hardest to deal with because of its nature and speed.

Jon

[bluedonkey99]

   maybe you could have a  F25 or F55 "Feuerlilie"
keeping in mind that the 40s missiles would be larger than a 60's verision, but maybe fired of larger ships such as pocket battleship or an early  AA destroyer/fleet protection platform?  It could be large enough to have some internal or relayed guidance?

[Dizzyfugu]

The original visual guidance for the Hs 293  from its launch aircraft would hardly work when it was launched from the ground, and the Hs 293 was rather a propelled gliding bomb than a true guided missile. Anyway, IIRC, there were also experiments with TV guidance (Hs 293D?), with a simple camera mounted in the bomb's nose - but the thing would still be launched from an aircraft. The TV guidance would at least make a ground-based pilot  plausible.



Furthermore, Japan experimented with autonomous IR guidance, for bombs against ship targets.

A potential option for ground launch could be the addition of a booster stage, e. g. from the Rheintochter SAM? 1:72 models of this missile, including launch pads, are available from Modelcollect. Mating these weapons should result in a scary combo...

[ysi_maniac]

Did British develop an equivalent of Hs 293 during or after WWII?

[NARSES2]

Anyway, IIRC, there were also experiments with TV guidance (Hs 293D?), with a simple camera mounted in the bomb's nose - but the thing would still be launched from an aircraft. The TV guidance would at least make a ground-based pilot  plausible.

I have a vague memory of reading somewhere that with these original experiments into t.v. guided bomb/rockets (and it may have been about the Hs 293 or possibly a US type) one of the problems was the stress that the guys who guided the weapons suffered from. They were having problems in viewing the human damage their efforts were causing from such a close up view ? Nowadays we train kids on more and more realistic video games 

[jcf]

USAAF GB-4 had TV guidance.
GB series:
http://www.designation-systems.net/dusrm/app1/gb.html

As did the JB-4, a GB-4 fitted with a Ford PJ31 pulsejet engine to extend stand-off range.
JB-4 series:
http://www.designation-systems.net/dusrm/app1/jb.html

The Bat used radar rather than TV and was the first guided missile to be used in combat
that wasn't guided by an operator.
http://www.designation-systems.net/dusrm/app1/asm-n-2.html

USN SWOD series
http://www.designation-systems.net/dusrm/app1/swod.html

The SUM-N-2 Grebe was a surfaced launched version of the Kingfisher series of air-launched
anti-shipping missiles.
http://www.designation-systems.net/dusrm/app1/sum-n-2.html

So, a ground launched Hs293 variant with some sort of radar, or optical, seeker isn't
completely out of the realm of possibility in period, how you tell it where the target is,
so the seeker can find the target is the question.